I just recently got back to collecting and have noticed that grading prices seem very expensive. Maybe it’s just me, but $12 to grade a card seems really expensive to grade a card, especially with cgc. $15 bulk per card with special collector’s edition, do they think we are multi millionaires?
I’m hesitant to submit 1st base bulbasaurs to PSA because of potential psa 10, and I have no idea what a $2,000 value upcharge is.
I am seeing a growing trend of companies becoming ‘more lean and effective’ ‘offering better services and putting in more time toward work attitude’, yet the grading card companies prices are charging $12-$15-$18 per card, when psa 10 modern charizards can go for $50-100. before the potential upcharges for valued cards.
Lol why would someone pay $12-18 to grade a card for. breakeven or $100 profit when the grading company gets 12-20% for doing nothing? Even if they offered $5 card grading prices, it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the grader that can wait the timeframe (4-10 months) for card returns, and at a time when money is not cheap,
Grading companies are sabotaging the market for a quick million.
They just be against poor people, because these prices are not affordable during these times.
Terrible. I may delete this post but it just really seems like grading companies are pilfering the true collectors and setting the market back for their modest gains and likely overall less then years pass.
It would be nice if they worked together with top graded card sellers/their true core clients to build a continuation of business rather than this churn and burn mentality.
I would love for a company to offer a much lower price for bulk that isn’t worth the plastic that it’s encased in (maybe <$15 valuation post-grading). That would encourage set collectors and species collectors to grade their bulk that nobody else will. @JoshsOddCollection
No. First off, the grading cost is a deterrent to flippers, not collectors. When it comes to $12 vs $7, you are taking about a profit margin and not actually concerned about the poor collector that can’t afford an extra $5 for a non-essential good.
Second off, the primary role for the price is to adjust demand. PSA was effectively shut down for almost a year in order to fulfill a backlog of orders. Higher cost = less cards submitted.
I would like more chaos. People barely have money as it is. Let’s give them a price that will make them jump towards grading again. Wait a bit longer, but they will pay.
Grading companies are losing their core customers, are falling victim to bad business by expecting cash flows of the past, even with current times and to be more mindful of collectors… They will never make as much as Pokemon selling booster packs, might as well contribute to harnessing the collectibles market than mass profit by gaining foothold on the market, which they have shined in the past.
I’m ready for the grading companies to release a one time special during this hype and build up backlog, its round 2 massive backlog which would deter the quick flippers unless they’re paying express fees and honestly it would be rewarding for the patient collectors while tying up hyped short term cards in a longer backlog. I’m not even going to mention what price it should be, it’s time for them to entice me, otherwise I’m buying graded cards for the longer hold anyways.
Wouldn’t it be great if the grading companies took a risk and ie. could gain more market share than other pilfering grading companies for higher grades by offering a service that reflects trend of modern cards?
They are sabotaging the collectibles market by grading cards that will be lesser valued later as majority of cards graded (not even in the higher faster premium tiers), and banking off the younger investors upwards to lower 20’s 30’s with faux expectations of churn and burn customers and the end buyer holding cards (which are not sealed booster openers with their children) will feel the blunt of the burn.
If they’re not generating more cash flow then each previous quarter’s past, they actually adding to the overall collectible market’s demise. I don’t even care about the magic or other taylor swift concert tickets being graded, or rotating baseball player cards or fans, but they owe it to Pokemon collectibles market (a family collectible) to not work to pilfer graders so much that even the highest volume graders are grinning and waiting for them to crash the market and go toward $6 grading as their base as people have forgotten about Pokemon cards.
They don’t need to be so wild wild west. If their businesses are sluffing, they failed as a service provider and to all the jobs they could have created, yet they burned.
PSA does not need more business. Competitors might benefit from lower prices.
Ultimately it’s not hard to understand though. They are setting prices to meet their ability to handle a certain level of throughput. Any kind of backlog is not great
Charging lower grading fees and creating a massive backlog is just bad business.
When the time comes when grading demand goes down, the grading fee price will go down with it. That time is not now though.
Clearly cgc needs mores business with this new label and upgrading 9.5’s they’re squeezing through the quiet times of collectibles.
It’s funny, PSA used to lead the way to excite collectors and card collectors alike. Perhaps under new leadership, their price points are missing the masses and ideas old of expanding to international markets is only actually sabotaging the english card market.
CGC is getting more attention and flux of older core psa graders, which is overall unfortunate for PSA collectors. BGS continues to attempt their Midwest antics of highest price ($3-7 more) for highest tier, while also offering raining black labels to makeup and encourage more submissions, so unnecessary and the chaos it adds to the chase of 10 is absolutely ridiculous and primitive as well.
Then these companies will blame the times for the decreased yesteryear’s profits when they would drive higher overall volume to bulk and highest theirs of any grading company to offer a market captive bulk price point.
And to josh’s point, which seems to be a always niched market (.12 cent cards wth) with $7-8 grading fee, that’s incredibly risky in itself but that seller service a particular niched collector…
Lol I am contesting submissions to graders until they can offer me some amazing prices, as the card holders have had to do, minus japan who got a expedited grading and wants to bitcoin hype sell their modern. Dude grading companies, there are not enough japanese volume for you to refocus your servicing considerations…
Just minutes ago I read a post where the unpaid cgc junk slabs from pwcc were being bundled into mystery boxes because no one wants them. This is what happens when grading prices are too cheap.
To make it super simple: people paid $10 to grade a card no one was willing to buy for $5.
I was just about to mention this. A consequence of lower prices is that you are producing more junk slabs that ultimately may reflect poorly on your brand
CGC slabs are garbage anyway and represents the lowest tiered grading prices, which is affecting middle class graders core to PSA.
Not to knock Mystery boxes, as they can change your life. It can reveal things in you and the people around you than you ever expected. How to be grateful, and it’s an upgraded version of sealed booster packs and probably higher graded cards. They’re fun and undervalued tbh.
Also, that’s a separate discussion about the cards being considered junk slabs, it’s mostly because they are in cgc gross plastic slabs or cgc sold slabs influenced the psa price. Good artwork, holo, reverse, non holo, can be graded for the collector if they like it and do not deserve to be called junk slab unless they are damaged cards.
Leave it to the Japanese card holders and PSA graders to jump in thread and give some
“No no, it’s priced just fine.”, clearly laughing their asses off to the english collector children playing around selling $20 graded pokemon cards.
As a collector, I would spare no expense to grade my precious cards. Benefits of grading is not just about the grades only, it’s also about authentication, preservation and protection of the card to prevent further damages and degradation due to external environmental factors.
During covid, there was an extended period of time when only PSA Express (and higher tier) service was available. The remaining lower tier services were all suspended. I still sent cards in.
Hence from collector’s perspective, I send my cards in for grading because I care for them.
Personally cause im from Australia i dont feel like grading is really worth it at all, its better for me to buy the slab from here and let someone else take the cost and upcharge.
